I quoted this text to draw your attention to the fact that human evolution is an ongoing process, and that significant changes have occured only recently. Another good reason to keep our hands off our DNA, except on what concerns individual interventions meant to correct genetic malformations. Leave nature alone and eventually we will evolve in manners which may be as favourable as unexpected. The universe has a logic of its own which we would do well not to interfere with. That logic has brought life to Earth, has allowed for a speedy evolution, has generated consciousness and self awareness among some living beings, and is pushing us down a path we are not able to understand but should respect.

Dear Sertorio, you have every right to worry that scientists may insist in pushing some, most or all of humanity into a vulnerable position. It is unlikely that most or all of humanity would be affected but yes it can happen. However, natural evolution has many equivalent failures. Countless spicies have gone extinct during the long evolution of life on earth. My guess is that the opening that you have conceded in applications of GM to correct maladies will become mainstream and foment the acceptance of the technology by the general public.

We spend too little time considering the universe in its magnitude and complexity. We tend to focus only on this speck of dust on which we live and on our insignificant species, failing to connect them to the universe as a whole. I don't know how the universe came about, but I think that from that moment on there was a coherence which has led to the multiplicaton of galaxies, to an incredible diversity of environments, to the appearance of life - who knows in how many trillion solar systems -, of multicelular beings, of consciousness and self awareness. A process which we see on Earth but must have occurred trillions of times all over the universe. This dynamic is continuing and will lead to further changes and evolution. Everything which has happened in the universe is meant to further such process. What is irrelevant disappears, what is relevant persists. Thta's why so many species have disappeared and are still disappearing. Because their function was over. Other species took over and moved forward. The question should be: are we about to become irrelevant to the universe, or will we persist and move forward? In my view, the chances of remaining relevant will increase if we resist tempering with what we do not understand. It may take hundreds of thousands of years, but we will evolve in a way that will allow us to start understanding what our role is in the universe. Connections will be established, consciousness will expand to collective forms, and the universe will become more visibly coherent. And each one of us, even if only as atoms and molecules, will remain part of it. I'm glad I will be part of it, even if in such modest form...

What surprises me is that so few people are concerned by this type of questions. Most people stick to a Medieval standpoint, believing that an imaginary pure spiritual being has created the universe and keeps busy with things as earth-shattering as in which direction you should pray, whether you should abstain from drinking alcohol and eating pork, refrain from cutting the hair from your temples, or not indulging in sex outside marriage under penalty of ending up in an equally imaginary nasty place called "hell"... Forgetting that "hell" is what so many of us do to other human beings in the name of that imaginary being...

Sertorio wrote:What surprises me is that so few people are concerned by this type of questions. Most people stick to a Medieval standpoint, believing that an imaginary pure spiritual being has created the universe and keeps busy with things as earth-shattering as in which direction you should pray, whether you should abstain from drinking alcohol and eating pork, refrain from cutting the hair from your temples, or not indulging in sex outside marriage under penalty of ending up in an equally imaginary nasty place called "hell"... Forgetting that "hell" is what so many of us do to other human beings in the name of that imaginary being...

I quoted this text to draw your attention to the fact that human evolution is an ongoing process, and that significant changes have occured only recently. Another good reason to keep our hands off our DNA, except on what concerns individual interventions meant to correct genetic malformations. Leave nature alone and eventually we will evolve in manners which may be as favourable as unexpected. The universe has a logic of its own which we would do well not to interfere with. That logic has brought life to Earth, has allowed for a speedy evolution, has generated consciousness and self awareness among some living beings, and is pushing us down a path we are not able to understand but should respect.

Dear Sertorio, you have every right to worry that scientists may insist in pushing some, most or all of humanity into a vulnerable position. It is unlikely that most or all of humanity would be affected but yes it can happen. However, natural evolution has many equivalent failures. Countless spicies have gone extinct during the long evolution of life on earth. My guess is that the opening that you have conceded in applications of GM to correct maladies will become mainstream and foment the acceptance of the technology by the general public.

We spend too little time considering the universe in its magnitude and complexity. We tend to focus only on this speck of dust on which we live and on our insignificant species, failing to connect them to the universe as a whole. I don't know how the universe came about, but I think that from that moment on there was a coherence which has led to the multiplicaton of galaxies, to an incredible diversity of environments, to the appearance of life - who knows in how many trillion solar systems -, of multicelular beings, of consciousness and self awareness. A process which we see on Earth but must have occurred trillions of times all over the universe. This dynamic is continuing and will lead to further changes and evolution. Everything which has happened in the universe is meant to further such process. What is irrelevant disappears, what is relevant persists. Thta's why so many species have disappeared and are still disappearing. Because their function was over. Other species took over and moved forward. The question should be: are we about to become irrelevant to the universe, or will we persist and move forward? In my view, the chances of remaining relevant will increase if we resist tempering with what we do not understand. It may take hundreds of thousands of years, but we will evolve in a way that will allow us to start understanding what our role is in the universe. Connections will be established, consciousness will expand to collective forms, and the universe will become more visibly coherent. And each one of us, even if only as atoms and molecules, will remain part of it. I'm glad I will be part of it, even if in such modest form...

Not knowing the purpose of the universe or comprehending all its process, one could just as easily make the opposite argument that it is ordained for humanity to experiment with success and failure of that being insignificant to the universe.

Not knowing the purpose of the universe or comprehending all its process, one could just as easily make the opposite argument that it is ordained for humanity to experiment with success and failure of that being insignificant to the universe.

It will be insignificant to the universe, it will not be insignificant to us as a species and to our future as partners in whatever the universe is becoming...